RTC dispute may affect student places

HUNDREDS of school leavers may miss out on college places because of an industrial dispute in the RTCs.

The students had their Leaving Certificate results upgraded last week. For many, the extra CAO points should mean a new third offer.

But in most RTCs no new offers have been made in the past because of industrial action by administrative staff who are members of Impact.

The union started an overtime ban two weeks ago following the breakdown of talks with the Department of Education over the appointment of additional permanent staff.

From Monday, the action escalated with a ban on the use of telephones.

About 950 school leavers were told last week their applications for upgrades were successful. While many want university places, the extra points obtained by a significant proportion make them eligible for a new RTC offer.

The normal procedure in such cases is for the RTCs to tell the Central Applications Office whether it can offer the student a place.

If the college is unable to fit students in, it writes to them offering a place on the same course in the following year.

But the Impact dispute has meant that at least some RTCs have not notified the CAO of their intentions and, as a result students have not heard whether they will be offered a new place.

Besides the upgraded students, the dispute may affect a few other CAO applicants who were due to be offered vacant places.

A Limerick parent said that after the rechecks, his son was now entitled to his fourth preference course, yet he had not been made an offer by the RTC in question.

He feared that many students would not know they were eligible for a new offer.

"Another parent believed her but was unable to get a response from the RTC because the phones were not being answered.

According to the CAO, Tallaght RTC had given authorisation to give places to students who qualified for courses following the rechecks. But the situation involving other RTCs was unclear.

A spokesman for the RTCs said he would be "amazed" if there was any major problem. In most cases, the work of the colleges was proceeding normally, he said.

Colleges sources said last night a new offer had been made to Impact, but this could not he confirmed with the union.

The last offer by the Department of 30 new posts was rejected two weeks ago by the union, which says an independent report from the Institute of Public Ad ministration recommended the appointment of 80 people from January 1995.

More than 200 clerical, administrative and library staff in the RTCs are taking part in the industrial action in 11 colleges. The union has promised a further escalation of the dispute if no settlement is reached.